What is a Right?

Define Universal Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights allows us to explore various perspectives on the rights and responsibilities shared by people across the world. In a 1947 survey, the United Nationals Economic and Social Committee (UNESCO) defined a right as:

. . . condition of living, without which . . . men cannot give the best of themselves as active members of the community because they are deprived of the means to fulfill themselves as human beings.

How would you define a right? Is the UNESCO definition too broad? Is it too narrow? What might you add to the UNESCO definition? Gather in a small group to brainstorm at least three rights that your group unanimously believes are "universal": that apply to all people from every cultural and political background. Also, consider at least three responsibilities that we all have for each other. How were your ideas similar? How were they different? As an extension, consider the US Bill of Rights or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. What are the rights they promise to protect? Would they match the UNESCO definition? How do they define a right? Are they "universal"?

Categorizing Human Rights

Human Rights scholars often break down the 30 articles of the UDHR into different categories. For example, scholars will discuss the difference between "old rights" and "new rights." Typically "old rights" are civil and political rights meant to protect individuals from the authority of the state, whereas "new rights" are often economic and social rights that are expected to be granted to individuals by the state. Consider which rights might fit in either of those categories. Closely examine the 30 articles of the UDHR and consider other ways to categorize the rights in the document. In groups, create three to six categories or bins for the rights. One suggestion for organizing these activities is to take a paper copy of the UDHR and cut the rights into individual strips and gather a number of bags or bins. Label each bag/bin with a category, and then put the rights in the bag.

At the end of the exercise bring the large group together to debrief the activity.

• What categories did they create?
• Did ideas converge?
• Where was there disagreement?
• Based on this exercise, what do you imagine were some of the points of contention as the document was being negotiated?

Read the UDHR

Read the UDHR and underline key words or phrases. Which words stand out? Another way to read the document is by creating a "Wordle" image from the document. Wordle creates "word clouds" from documents by giving greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the document. What are the five most used words in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? What does this suggest about the meaning and intention of the document? Are these the words you would have predicted?

Another way to demonstrate understanding of the key ideas embedded in the UDHR is to create a found poem using key words or phrases from the document. Using the Wordle image, take significant words and phrases and combine and repeat them in creative ways to construct a poem about human rights.

A different way to talk about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is to have a silent conversation about the text using the Big Paper teaching strategy. Post the text of the document to a large piece of chart paper and while reading it in groups, interact and react to the text by writing on the document or in the margins of the chart paper. Respond to others in writing and begin a conversation and interaction with one another, focusing on the text and the written responses.